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Developing the control system of a syringe

infusion pump
R. Assunção, P. Barbosa, R. Ruge, P. S. Guimarães, J. Alves, I. Silva and M. A. Marques
Physics Department, Polytechnic of Porto-School of Engineering, Porto, Portugal

Abstract— Infusion pumps have multiple uses according to
their location. According to its use, there is a need to control
specific parameters. The objective of this work is to
implement and to assembly all the modules of an infusion
pump, controlling all the functions. The control was
implemented with the microcontroller board based Arduino
and a webpage was developed to assist the user to record,
retrieve and access information about the operating
conditions.
Index Terms—Infusion pump, Arduino, webpage, infusion
rate, infused volume.
reason, the pump control panel consists usually on a
keypad, for data setting to define the infusion parameters.
The data output is visualized through an alphanumeric
display (Liquid Crystal Display – LCD). This display
shows information on the infusion in course, the total
volume to be infused, the flow rate (ml/h or drops/min),
the total and remaining times and some information about
the alarms. These alarms control the infusion precision,
being set-off in the instant some parameter falls outside
the expected operating interval. There are alarms
indicating misuse or wear out of some parts, which helps
to guarantee the health safety and security of the patient.

I. INTRODUCTION II. CONTROLLLING THE INFUSION PUMP

An infusion pump is an electro medical equipment In this work, a syringe mechanism was used to serve as
commonly used in hospitals and in ambulatory to the fluid reservoir and to create the necessary pressure for
introduce a liquid (other than blood) in a blood vessel, infusion. It uses an endless worm thread to position the
mainly medication or nutrients, since it is a very efficient, plunger, managing in this way the liquid movement. This
rapid and precise method [1][2]. There are several types of process is controlled by a stepping motor where the
infusion pumps distinguished by being either, manual, or rotation of the motor is transmitted to the endless thread
semiautomatic or fully automatic. In manual pumps, the (Figure 1. ). Normally, a spring is used to push the plunger
flow control depends on the pressure created as result of with a constant force, necessary for a stable infusion
gravity, since it consists in two liquid reservoirs and a pressure. This type of infusion generates a continuous
three-way stopcock used to regulate the flow manually, high precision flow (with an error below 2%).
which differs from the semiautomatic type which in turn is
automatically controlled by a set of LED/phototransistor
counting the number of times the beam is interrupted and
emitting alarms. The automatic pumps are used when a
better precision is needed. In this case, the infusion
pressure is independent of gravity, allowing for greater
pressures if necessary. Syringe infusion pumps are used in
situations where high precision and low flow are
necessary, namely for paediatric cases or in intensive
therapies where small volumes of high concentration
Figure 1. Syringe infusion mechanism [8].
medication are applied for long periods of time [3].
The flow control may be volumetric or non-volumetric.
A volumetric flow control regulates the volume infused A. Pump and Control System Block Diagram
per time (ml/h) as well as the infusing velocity no matter The developed system to control the syringe pump is
the type of liquid. In a non-volumetric control, the pump depicted in the block diagram of Figure 2.
controls the number of drops per time (drip rate in
drops/min) as well as the infusion velocity. The volume
depends on the drop’s size, varying with type of Infusion
equipment, temperature, liquid viscosity and density. Motor Display
Mechanism
The control circuit can be either analog or digital. In
this case, the microprocessor is responsible for Patient Control Circuit WEB
interpreting the information recorded on the device, for
controlling the infusion mechanism, for interpreting the
sensor signals and setting-off the alarms whenever Other
Alarms
necessary. The control circuits can store information, Sensors
calculate the dose of the pharmaceutical agents, vary the
infusion rate as well as being the interface between the Figure 2. Infusion pump block diagram.
pump and the microcomputer and peripherals. For this

978-1-4799-2025-9/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE Polytechnic of Porto (ISEP) in Porto, Portugal from 26-28 February 2014
2014 11th International Conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation (REV) 1
Page 254

Figure 3. Infusion pump and the developed control system.
The patient is connected to the pump, which in turn is
completely controlled by the developed system. The pump
sensor and alarms are used and the control circuit manages
all the necessary input and output data. Data is sent to the
pump through user web interface [6][7]. This block
diagram maps on the real system shown in Figure 3.
As depicted, the system is divided in four units:
1. Electrical/mechanical unit of the infusion pump;
2. Module with a stepping motor and its controller
and alarms (buzzers and syringe presence led);
3. Arduino module controlling the operation of the
pump;
4. Display LCD for visual feedback of the
information.
Introducing all the control parameters in the web
interface, the information is processed in the
microcontroller and the pump is set to work as defined.
B. Web Interface
Through the web interface, the different infusion
parameters are sent to the Arduino [4], which
communicates with the pump through the serial port. This
interface also allows managing the patients’ records by
accessing their electronic medical record, thus allowing
the health professionals to have more detailed information
on the patient as seen on Figure 4. All the information [5]
sent to the Arduino, as well as the data related to the
patient and the health professional operating the
equipment is stored in a database developed in easyphp.
Figure 4. Web interface showing the list of medication for a certain
patient.
C. Microcontroller Arduino
After receiving data from the web interface, the
Arduino module calculates the different infusion
parameters necessary to set the pump operating mode.
978-1-4799-2025-9/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE Polytechnic of Porto (ISEP) in Porto, Portugal from 26-28 February 2014
2014 11th International Conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation (REV)
Page 255
Figure 5. LCD display showing the infusion rate (left) and the battery
level (right).
The several alarms are also controlled by this
microcontroller. One of the alarms indicates the absence
of the syringe, not allowing the infusion if set-off. There
are alarms corresponding to the end of the infusion
(acoustic alarm) and also to indicate the battery voltage
level. All this information is also sent to the LCD display
so that the user can visualize what is going on (Figure 5.
III. CONCLUSIONS
The system developed allows to controlling all the
parameters necessary to the syringe infusion pump. The
mechanical parts used were part of the original pump but
the control hardware and the user web interface was
completely designed. Apart from the infusion parameters,
all the alarms triggered during an infusion, the battery
level – which are parameters related to the equipment, the
health professional handling the pump and the medical
records related to the patient are also recorded in a
database for later information. This system could also be
improved, mainly the interface with the mechanical part
and the microcontroller, specifically inserting a numerical
keypad and a command pushbutton to better control the
infusion pump, deal with different syringes for specific
volumetric flows, and other aesthetic details. Due to time
restraints, more emphasis was given on the development
of the connections to the database and remote controlling
the pump.
REFERENCES
[1] John G. Webster, “Medical Instrumentation
Application and Design”, 4th Ed., Wiley, Feb. 2009.
[2] Joseph D. Bronzino, “The Biomedical Engineering
Handbook – Medical devices and Systems”, 3rd Ed.
CRS Press, 2006
[3] https://www.ecri.org/ES/Documents/174961.pdf,
“Ambulatory Infusion Pumps”, accessed: April 2013
[4] www.arduino.cc, accessed: April 2013
[5] Bemmel, J., Bemmel J. Van, Mark A. Musen,
“Handbook of Medical Informatics”, Springer, 1997
[6] P. Morville and L. Rosenfeld, “Information
Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing
Large-Scale Web Sites”, 2nd Ed., O’Reilly, 2002
[7] A. Muller and M. I. Scwartzbach, “An introduction to
XML and WEB Technologies”, Addison-Wesley,
2006
[8] Anders Muller and Michael I. Scwartzbach,
“Equipamentos Medico-Hospitalares e o
Gerenciamento da Manutenção”, Addison-Wesley,
2006.
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